Social media affects almost every aspect of our life, including where and how to travel. Some of your friends who couldn’t stand 30 minutes under the sun are now taking endless beach trips because they constantly feed on beach vacation photos. Hotels and all players in the hospitality industry are turning to social media to strengthen brand marketing, reach more audiences, and drive sales.
As of 2021, there are already 3.78 billion social media users globally, and that’s more than enough reason to put your hotel on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
But how does it exactly work? And what role does professional hotel photography play?
1. Allows You To Reach More Potential Guests
The internet takes away the limitations set by geography. With a social media presence, you can constantly update potential guests on upcoming promotions, events, services, and amenities. Gone are the days when you have to put up billboards or print flyers for announcements.
All that you need to do is build a large online following. You can do it by regularly uploading quality and relevant content. For example, if winter is fast approaching, you may want to post things like “How to Weather-Proof Your Home” or “Why to Stay Warm at Our Hotel”.
With professional videography, many people would be willing to share your content. Did you know that 92% of mobile consumers share videos with others?
Note: You can take advantage of influencer marketing to reach more potential guests. There are different types of social media marketing and influencer marketing is one of them. If there is one social media platform that represents the pinnacle of influencer marketing, it’s Instagram.
But, in order to run the best influencer marketing campaign, you first need to find Instagram influencers in your niche to collaborate with.
Instagram influencer marketplaces like Ainfluencer act as intermediates to help connect brands and businesses with the right influencers.
With Ainfluencer, businesses have the ability to create their own marketplace ads, which are then posted on a marketplace where thousands of qualified influencers can view them and make offers. Using Ainfluencer’s advanced search filters for location, gender, language, hashtags, number of followers, etc., brands can simply find and contact influencers.
2. Offers Targeted Marketing Options
In traditional marketing, your efforts reach random people—which isn’t cost-efficient. Thankfully, social media makes it a lot easier to reach your target market.
“You can now target many people using many tools offered by social media platforms. Concentrate your reach according to age, gender, location, interests, income, etc. You can target as many people as you like, depending on the budget, of course.”, explains Max Funding financial strategist Shane Perry.
For example, a hotel that specializes in family vacations can target married people with children. This market might have joined groups or liked/shared posts related to family time, travel, and parenting. The hotel should highlight certain features, such as the swimming pool, water slides, and colorful inflatable toys. A video or cinemagraph is the most effective way to help potential customers imagine how it feels to be at your hotel.
Additionally, analytic tools allow you to identify which campaigns are popular and which aren’t.
3. Helps You Build An Emotional Connection With Customers
The customer return rate is higher if the emotional connection is more robust. Every marketer knows that being able to tug the heartstrings is a guarantee of success.
Imagine the delight of potential guests when receiving a quick, personalized reply. Besides demonstrating your well-oiled customer service, it’s a way to show your genuine concern for customer opinions and concerns.
Do you know what else is effective in stirring up emotions? High-quality hotel photographs!
4. Helps You Maintain Branding
Social media allows brands to present their brand directly to the client. You can customize ads for the target market, post relevant content, and respond to their posts using your brand voice.
For example, a hotel that caters to business people and corporate professionals may create content that revolves around:
- How to dress up for lunch meetings, conferences, fundraisers, etc.
- Exercise tips for busy individuals
- How to maintain work-life balance
- How to know if the suit is perfect for you
- Healthy eating tips when traveling
Take note that visual content performs 4.4 better than texts. But don’t just grab any photo from the inventory. Customers can quickly tell if it’s a stock photo, and they might think you’re trying to deceive them.
Instead, hire a professional hotel photographer who understands branding.
5. Increase Direct Bookings
Direct booking through social media sites is becoming a necessity in the hospitality industry. After all, your social media presence is your direct connection to the customers. By allowing people to book rooms through social media, you can experience a significant surge in bookings. Remember that convenience is the driving force here.
And 60% of people are more likely to click a business that has images. You can increase that number by using sharper photos!
The power of social media is unfathomable. What we know is that we can harness it to boost branding, increase sales, and maintain healthy relationships. But always remember that humans respond faster to images because these are processed faster in the brain.
